NASCAR 07 Hands-on

While staying mum on its late summer next-generation announcements, EA today showed off the Xbox, PS2, and PSP versions of this year's always-turning-left, oval course racer. Returning a more simplistic yet strategic form, EA plans to bring a real core experience to longtime fans and NASCAR lovers.

Among other areas, the EA development team has focused its work on car responsiveness, tire wear management, drafting, and efficient pit stop management. While the Xbox and PS2 versions displayed an unattractive amount of aliasing and shimmering in this preview build, the team said it's endeavored to create a better sense of speed. By blurring the cars' edges, using a fish-eye lens angle and implementing high contrasts in the road and the environment, EA's work has panned out. It gives a visual sense of speed that shows up relatively well in the three over-the-shoulder perspectives, better in the cockpit view, and best in the first-person angle, which was lowered to a cockroach perspective to create an impressive blast of speed.

NASCAR 07 provides all of the modes from last year's game, including the Nextel Cup, the NASCAR Bush series, the Craftsman Truck Series, and the Whelen Modified Tour. Players will get the chance to race in the Fight to the Top mode, enter into a full season, or pick a Quick Race. This year a Kenny Wallace side series breaks up the monotony of basic courses. Players can take on a Trial Series with rewards of bronze, silver, and gold medals, earning them various contracts. These sponsorship contracts comprise annual income and a merchandise section, each of which provide more money for car upgrades and better teams. A cell phone interface offers the details from your agent when contracts change.

Refining the art of NASCAR might seem easy, but driving 48 laps against 42 other experienced contenders handling cars at 150-plus MPH isn't actually all that easy. EA has worked on car responsiveness, which is regularly a key in 15-car bunches where minute changes in direction and speed could either put you ahead of your rival or cause a devastating pileup. By implementing a new HUD, EA hopes to give players more control over drafting and tire management. On the lower left-hand side of the screen, players will see a speedometer which extends from the left-hand side of an arc to the right-hand side which measures tire wear. The tire wear gauge is a quarter circle that starts off fully green. As pressure and wear start to corrode the tires, red starts to creep up the meter from the bottom. Players thus have an instant wear meter to help them make time-sensitive decisions during those crucial late season races, keeping them in the loop during those 40-plus lap races without losing grip and speed from worn out tires. The indicator also helps players to pit as few times as possible with focused attention on only the necessities, be it fuel, new tires, or whatever.

Under the left-hand arc of the speedometer, players also can see a drafting meter. This meter appears in blue and moves quickly up and down as you drive up behind other cars use them to gain speed, without using an excessive amount of fuel. Drafting is slightly more powerful than I remember in past NASCAR games. It provides a wild boost and swing from behind a competitor into the fray. When used smartly it saves fuel and assists in beating the competition

You compete in teams too. In many races you'll have control over as many as three other drivers, who you can command via the right analog stick. You can command team mates to help them in a race, including blocking, moving up, moving aside, following, pitting now, holding, "work with me," drop back, and others. All of the commands are modifiable in a menu that's accessible during gameplay, but only four can be mapped to the controls at any one time. The game makes sense of your teammates' situations, teaching you when it's smart to call up a driver, have them block for you, or even create drafting situations. When it's not appropriate, audible replies tell you why not. Players can also choose to use USB headsets to call in commands without using the right analog. A basic four-player online component offers gamers the ability to get online and experience simple races.

The PSP version highlights almost all of the features from the console versions, including Career and Fight to the Top. EA's PSP team worked extremely hard to prevent the handheld's iteration from turning into a watered down inferior title. PSP gamers can jump into four-player wireless ad-hoc races, enter into Race Now, with all of its race types, Season mode, or jump into head-to-head speed zone. The game also features a technique not available in the console version, Instant Rewind. By earning skill points through smart driving, players earn the ability to rewind out of bad passes, turns or mishaps, quickening the races and turning a potential restart into something more reasonable. Lightning Challenge comprises a set of scenarios in which gamers must prove they have what it takes. By beating these, gamers earn Thunder Plates that unlock hidden drivers, tracks and paint schemes.

The PSP version naturally looks different. The smaller widescreen gives the game slick, smooth appearance. EA has removed the HUD from the screen, using miniature white icons to indicate oncoming racers from behind, while also eliminating the rearview mirror. EA has also managed to keep the game running at 30 FPS with as many as 43 cars on screen simultaneously. Lastly, EA has given a little gift that's perfect to handheld gamers. Players now can save any competition mid-race. Yep, quit and save at any time, and come back a day or a year later and pick up wherever you left off. Nifty!

At the end of the long hot summer night, EA's precision work on NASCAR 07 should pan out. The new HUD, sense of speed, and management properties all work well together. The games pack all of the NASCAR-relevant qualities required by any ardent fan. Plus, this year's more refined controls and focus on smart management perfectly complement the game's steady-paced racing feel. We'll have more in the next few weeks for all three versions.